Mindoir Memories
by MarcoG
Summary: It's been eleven years since Mindoir and Shepard is still trapped in both the good and bad memories untill a certain quarian asks him to tell the story that he refuses to tell anybody. / Rated M for language and adult content. Constructive criticisme is appreciated.
1. Prologue

Something is… different today. Tali wasn't sure what it was, but everybody seemed to be on edge today. The usual friendly bickering and bantering between the engineers which she became so used to was completely forgotten today and everybody seemed to be working faster even Adams with his usual quirky attitude. The usual lunch-breaks in the mess hall were now instead taken in the cargo bay today, even Kaidan seemed to prefer chatting with Ashley instead in the cargo bay in favor of working at his usual spot on the upper deck.

Normally such things wouldn't turn her suspicious but the fact that Shepard didn't invite her to join him for lunch today made her wonder just what was going on. It was always the highlight of her day, not that she would tell him that, when he invited her to eat, talk or the occasional work they did together. She used to think he was just making sure that she wasn't stealing anything until she realized after a few conversations with him that he genuinely seemed interested in her long explanations of the flotilla and always seemed lost in a memory when she was talking about the pilgrimage. He surprised her when she started talking about quarian culture and he revealed to her that he had some knowledge about how they were before the Geth uprising. She even managed to catch him uttering a quarian curse every now and then to her astonishment. One day she asked Shepard how he knew so much about her people and immediately regretted it when his eyes glazed over and a longing expression crossed his face, it took him a second to compose himself and he told her that she wasn't the first quarian he met but refused to talk about it. She decided it was best to let the subject drop before she overstepped her boundaries and he got mad. A few conversations later she told him that her father was an Admiral on the admiralty board and he decided to call her princess from that moment forth even after she told him repeatedly that it wasn't the same thing.

After making a mistake in her calculations Adams told her to take a break and she decided to ask Dr. Charkwas why everybody was acting so strange.

She walked to the medical bay hoping to find Dr. Chakwas there, who was in the middle of a conversation with Liara. She crossed the med-bay and Chakwas looked up at her as she approached who gave her one of her motherly smiles that always made her think back at her own mother. "Tali, what can I do for you?" She asked.

"Well.." she started nervously. "Today everybody seems to be acting a little… different than usual. Half the crew seem to take their lunch to avoid walking in the mess hall and those that are eating in the mess hall try to be as quiet as possible, I also haven't seen Shepard outside of his quarters all day, and I don't know why but everybody else seems to know and I'd like to know what it is before I make a mistake or make a fool out of myself and you always know what is going on so I was wondering if you umm.. if you could tell me? Unless your too busy of course. Then I can just come back later if that's better."

"I was wondering the same thing." Liara chimed up, "Do you know why perhaps?"

"Oh dear." Chakwas sighed "Don't you two know what happened eleven years ago?"

"No..? Did something important happen on that day?" Tali asked.

"Eleven years ago Batarian slavers raided his hometown on Mindoir." She said remorseful. "His parents and everybody he knew either died or got enslaved by Batarian slavers."

"By the goddess" Liara whispered

"I was stationed on the SSV Oriziba when the Alliance responded to the distress call. It took two days before the Batarians were fully driven away but by the time the Alliance managed to drive the Batarians away they managed to take off with almost the whole colony." Tali gulped. "When they found John he was passed out from blood loss surrounded by 15 Batarian corpses and destroyed one of their assault vehicle."

"He took on 15 people and a tank by himself?" Tali asked in disbelief. "That's suicide."

"I think," she admitted wistful "that that was his intention dear." A moment of silence overcame Tali as she tried to imagine how horrible it the situation must've been, Chackwas sighed and continued. "When they brought him into the med-bay for treatment it turned out that his implant was fried from exertion. When we tried to find a replacement implant on the ship the only one we could find was an experimental L3 implant."

"I've never heard of implants overheating before, I didn't even know it was possible." Tali pondered.

"It's not completely unheard of," Liara replied "but to have such powers at that age is remarkable."

"You're not the only one who thought that." Chakwas muttered darkly. "The Alliance immediately wanted to start experimented with his new implant until I managed to drive them all off and promised them they could chat with him after he was in top medical condition"

"Anyway when he woke up he refused to speak to anybody about what happened on Mindoir, the only sound he made was when he woke up screaming from his dreams for someone named Lana." she said remorseful "After his injuries were healed he asked me if they found a green box near him and brought it with them when they transported him to the Oriziba. It took me a few hours before one of the marines, Private James at the time, reported finding a box and dropped it off. When I asked him why he took it he told me that the chest looked like it contained something valuable so he decided to take it for himself instead of leaving it there."

"He stole the box while Shepard was bleeding on the ground?" Tali asked aghast, "That's.. that's terrible!"

"Oh you weren't the only one who thought that." Chakwas grinned at her. "At the time we didn't realize John had woken up already and overheard the conversation. Before I even know it Shepard was on him and managed to hit him pretty good before we were able to sedate. It turned out he broke James's nose, two ribs and his right arm."

"Good" Tali muttered.

"When Captain Anderson received the news of John's attack in the med-bay he had Pvt. James removed from his ship in an instant."

Before Chakwas could continue her story Tali's omni-tool beeped with an incoming message from Adams:

_Tali,_

_Can you bring today's status report to Shepard he needs to know we need to ventilate the cooling units today or our stealth systems will cause the core to overload and then we'll have a serious problem._

_~Adams_

"Just great" she muttered.

"What's wrong Tali?" Liara asked.

"I have to inform Shepard that we need to let the ship vent it's heat." She informed and stood to leave. Behind her she could hear Liara ask Chakwas to continue her story.

She walked back to the elevator and once again noticed the unusual quiet in the mess hall as everybody tried to eat as quick and quiet as possible unlike their usual behavior. As the elevator descended the ship she couldn't help but feel uneasy at the idea of disturbing Shepard with whatever he was going through on a day like this, she still remembers the pain she feels when she thinks of her own mothers dead and can't comprehend how he must feel. Adams gave her an apologetic smile as he handed her the OSD with the report which did nothing but increase her uneasiness. "Make sure he looks it over or we're in trouble"

As she stood in front of Shepard's quarters a moment later she could feel the rooms eyes on her probably wondering what she was going to do in front of Shepard's quarters. She knew that there were rumors going on about a relationship between her and Shepard because of the time they usually spend together, and anxiously standing in front of his quarters did nothing to diffuse those rumors.

She gathered her courage and took one final breath and clicked the intercom button next to the door. Tali started shuffling her feet when he didn't answer the intercom, she debated leaving but deciding against it as she pressed the button again.

This time he did answer but it wasn't his usual welcoming voice but a tone normally directed at people standing in his way, "What do you want, I'm busy."

"I umm…" She started, "Adams asked me to update you on the engine status."

She could hear him exhale deeply and regretted coming here."Fine. Just umm, give me a moment." On her right she spotted Chakwas behind the med-bay window looking at her with her motherly smile and a mix of worry, caring and encouragement written all over her face. Suddenly the door opened and Shepard looked down at her as his eyes got used to the light . _He looks like a mess,_ she thought. His eyes were red and she could see that he hadn't shaved and showered like he usually does. "Right come on in princess." As he spoke her suit sensors detected a heavy concentration of alcohol in his breath. He stumbled into his room and walked with much effort to the chair by his terminal and grabbed another chair for her to sit down on. She sat down in the chair and looked around the room noticing a battered green box opened on his bed with an old and deactivated combat drone lying next to it. He noticed her gaze and immediately closed the box. "So what's wrong with our engines princess?"

"What?"she asked, "Oh umm here's the report" She handed over the OSD to Shepard who took it with a sigh while rubbing his eyes to clear his vision. After skimming over the list he handed it back to her and nodded.

"Anything else I need to know about?" he asked "or can I go back to my depression?"

"Are you alright?" she asked before she could stop herself.

He exhaled, "I'm drinking alone in my quarter wallowing over a girl I lost eleven years ago. How do you think I am?" he slumped in his chair and put his hand in his hands "God I'm pathetic" He grumbled.

"I think it's sweet," She replied, he looked up at her like she just grew another head and she couldn't suppress a giggle. She composed herself again and folded her arms on top of the table as she stared directly into his sad green eyes. "I'm here if you want someone to talk to Shepard.."

He snorted, "What good does talking do."

"What good does drinking do?" She replied with a grin.

The corner of his mouth and twitched and she could almost swear she saw him smile but it was gone before she could blink. "Touché princess." He admitted, and looked pensively at his hands "Alright you win." He opened his desk and fished out another bottle and poured himself a shot. "I'd give you a drink but I don't want to poison you." He downed the shot and shaked his head to clear the buzz. "Can I get you something, a drink or paste.."

"Shepard" she scolded "stop stalling already, I'm fine. It's you I'm worried about."

"Fine, fine, just trying to be nice here no need to get upset."

"Shepard…"

He exhaled and looked pointedly at her, "Her name was Lana'Maru nar Mindoir."

Tali blinked, it wasn't often that she was caught off guard but when he uttered those words she was unsure if he was being serious or not. Her mind was racing a thousand miles per hour as she tried to wrap her mind around the idea of Shepard dating a quarian when he was young. She blinked again as she put two and two together about Shepard's longing look and how his mood was immediately soured when she asked about his quarian knowledge. A thousand more questions came to mind, Is she a quarian? How is that possible? When did it happen? How did it happen? All she managed to utter was a dumbfounded, "How.."

"She was the only person that didn't hate me" he reminisced as he looked at his shaking hands. "Everybody on Mindoir hated me because I was a biotic." He snorted "abomination, freak, witch, demon, pest, you name it I've been called it." He looked back up at her, "Everybody and I mean EVERYBODY blamed me when something bad happened. 'Oh it's storming, blame the witch he cursed us', 'Oh I failed my test, the demon cursed me', 'Oh somebody went missing, the freak killed them.', 'A child died at birth, blame the witch.' And so on and so on." He sighed.

Tali, for the second time in 5 minutes, was dumbstruck. She couldn't fathom how that must've felt, the only thing she could come up with were the looks of suspicion and unfair treatment she received on the Citadel but guessed that was probably only a fraction of what he must've felt like. "What about your parents?"she asked solemnly.

"They hated me the most" he snorted his tone laced with disgust, "every time I used my biotics or sneezed the wrong way he beat me while my mother prayed to god to remove the demon child from their family." He poured himself another drink and downed it again. "I was living in hell for sixteen years." He added bitterly.

Tali was unsure what to do, she wanted to comfort him so very much, just place her hands on his to soothe his anguish, but wasn't sure what he would think so she just remained passive. "How did you meet her?" she asked.

He smiled longingly and poured himself another drink. "Not that different from how I met you to be honest," he said, "although the roles were reversed back then."

"How so?" she asked.

"Well" he started, "sit back and I'll tell you the whole story from the beginning."


	2. Midday Run

_Mindoir, 12 years and 103 days ago_

It was a warm sunny day on Mindoir, a soft breeze was flowing in the air, the grass flowing softly in the wind, the leaves in the trees rustling to the wind, all in all it was a quiet casual and boring day for all the people in Mindoir. All but Shepard who was being chased by three people. Today Shepard decided to go to take a shortcut through an alley instead of staying on the main road as usual. Upon arrival he was immediately surrounded by the three persons that he least hoped to find there, the three people that took every opportunity to degrade, harass or outright assault him, before he knew it two of them were holding has arms and a third punched his face. Against his better knowledge he used his biotics, giving him a heavy migraine, causing them to stumble backwards. As they were disoriented by his biotics he made a run for the exit. He hoped to be out of town by the time they recovered again but by now he knew better then to depend on his luck. He managed to run for five seconds before he could hear them rounding the corner and follow him.

_All because I wanted to take a two minute shortcut damn it. _He thought.

"Give it up Demon!" Rick, their leader, screamed after him, "You can't outrun us! We'll catch you sooner or later!"

Shepard knew he was right, they always managed to catch him, but he had no indication to make it easy on them. He kept running down the road leading away from town followed by the bullies 10 yard behind him slowly gaining ground.

As he looked around for an escape route he realized he could see a forest in the distance. _Yes!, _He thought, _maybe I can lose them in the forest._

"He's going to hide in the forest!" Jack, their 'muscle', screamed.

"Then catch him before that happens!" Rick replied.

Shepard sprinted through branches and bushes, jumped over fallen trees, run through a shallow creek, climb over rocks but his followers were persistent and they were still slowly but steadily closing in on him. He ran through the forest for what seemed like an hour. He pushed a branch aside and found himself looking at a ten feet high fence, he hesitated for a moment but made up his mind as he heard Rick fall and curse about 6 yards behind him. As he climbed the fence Rick, Jack and James cleared the forest and came to halt at the fence. It took them a moment before James noticed Shepard hurling himself over the top. "He's on the other side, help me up." Jack leaned against the fence and held his hands together making a makeshift handle for James to stand on.

Shepard lifted himself from the ground and looked at his surroundings trying to figure out where he was and where to go. He was surrounded by junk, mostly metal and electronics on second notice, which seemed to go on for miles. _Where the hell did I end up now? _he thought. A thud behind him pulled him out of his thoughts and he immediately made another sprint for a pile of junk 3 yards away. As he climbed the pile Rick ordered Jack to look for the entrance of the property to cut Shepard off in case he tried to escape again.

"You've got nowhere left to run Demon, just give it up already." Rick said, "We'll even beat you less if you stop."

"Like hell we do!" James shouted dangerously close behind him. "He's going to pay for making me run."

As Shepard turned around to reply his foot caught on a wire and he tripped falling forward. He could hear laughter behind him as he tumbling down the pile, he could feel several objects poking painfully in his stomach and legs. A moment later he was lying face down on a broken refrigerator. He groaned as he pushed himself on his back and immediately felt a spike of pain in his stomach, upon inspection he could see a piece of metal sticking out.

Rick and James slowly approached him as he lay staring with horror at the blood flowing out of his wound. "Oh look James" Rick started, "it turns out even demons can bleed."

"I'll be damned" He replied as he squatted down next to Shepard.

"Please" Shepard begged with a rasped voice, "Help me, I-I'm going to bleed out."

"I know" James whispered in his ear with a malicious grin, "and we've got front row tickets to see it happen."

Shepard stared in horror and couldn't stop the tears forming at the corner of his eyes at the prospect of bleeding out in some god-forsaken scrap yard. "What do you think'll happen when he dies?" Rick asked, "Maybe the ground will open and he'll get swallowed up." Black spots appeared on his vision as he dropped his head back down.

"No don't be stupid." James started, "When he dies he'll probably –"

Their conversation was interrupted by the appearance of a green orb floating toward them. Shepard squinted his eyes at the orb but all he was able to make out was a circle in the middle what seemed to look like a blue eye.

The orb stopped two feet away from James and it emitted a deep warbled voice "Leave this place."

James stood up and Rick closed in on the orb. "Or what." He asked chuckling as he shoved the drone.

Suddenly it's 'eye' turned red and a whirring sound emitted from the orb. It bumped with a tremendous force into Rick's stomach causing him to double over as he gasped for air, before James could react an electric charge erupted from its 'eye' causing him to spasm and fall on the ground.

Its eye turned blue again and the same deep warbled voice returned louder this time, "Leave now or be thrown away as the _fre'eg_ you are."

James growled in anger as he scrambled to his feet but before he could strike out he was held back by a hand on his shoulder from Rick. "C'mon James, he's dead meat anyway" he said as he waved his other hand at Shepard's prone form. James grunted and reluctantly walked to the exit constantly looking back at the orb following them.

Shepard stared at the cloudless sky and prepared for the darkness to take him. _At least it's a beautiful day to day. _He mused. At the sound of footsteps hurriedly approaching he wondered if it was James coming back for him. When the steps halted a green helmet with two big white orbs staring at him and the last thought going through his mind before the darkness took him was which light he was supposed to go to.

-GU-GU-GU-

**Fre'eg: **Curse word. Literal translation: Clinging waste. In old earth english, a dingleberry.


	3. Awakening

_Mindoir, 12 years and 101 days ago_

Shepard regained conscious with a light headed feeling. He groggily opened his eyes and noticed that the whole room was white. _Am I dead? _He thought. He tried to sit up but immediately lay back down as a spike of pain came from his stomach. _Right.. not dead then. _He mused. He closed his eyes trying to figure out what happened. _Right, I was going home.., _He surmised,_ then I was being chased again until I tripped on something and fell down. Then I was bleeding..?_ quickly he looked down at his stomach only to find it wrapped securely in bandages. _What the hell…_

He was pulled out of his thoughts as he heard soft snoring behind him, he turned his head to take a look at the other person in the room. On first inspection he saw a grey suited girl huddled comfortably in a chair. She wore a helmet with cyan tinted glass and a green cloth covering her helmet and drooping over her shoulders tied together in front of her. He froze as he noticed with wide eyes her three fingered hands holding onto her oddly bended shins and three toed feet.

_Alien!_, his mind screamed. Shepard admitted that he didn't know much about aliens, but what he did know was the First contact war in 2157 with the Turians, and how all the other species look down at humans. He remembered how a few years ago a blue woman came to Mindoir not even bothering to be polite with anybody.

His mind kept summarizing questions, _Where am I? What is going to happen to me? What day is it? How many of them are there?_, but no answers came to mind. _I have to get out of here._ He decided.

Slow but steadily he sat himself up and sat at the edge of the bed he was lying in. _Careful now. _He thought. He rested his feet on the ground and slowly steadied himself. Another soft snore caught his attention and he immediately spun around, his fast movement made him lose control and he stumbled to the ground. He landed on his stomach and he screamed in agony as his wound reopened. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see her eyes jolt to awareness at his agonizing scream, he froze and stared at her as she locked eyes with him.

Shepard tried to scramble away as she rushed to his side. A series of incomprehensible sounds escaped her, a different language he assumed, as she lifted him on the bed and quickly removed his, now bloodstained, bandages. He stared with awe as she smeared some sort of magical gel on his wound immediately stopping the blood flow, after the blood flow stopped she got new bandages and her hands dexterously wrapped it tightly around his wound. She finished and took a step back to inspect her work, after a while she nodded approvingly to herself and turned her gaze in his direction.

She spoke to him again but he still had no clue what she was saying to him After a while of talking to him without a reply her eyes narrowed slightly for a moment and then widened as she seemed to realize his problem. She raised her hand to open her omni-tool and noticed Shepard eying it warily, she opened her omni-tool and Shepards eyes widened as the same Green orb, a drone he realized, appeared out of thin air. "It was you" he whispered quietly, to his surprise she seemed to understand him as she nodded her head. "You can understand me?" He asked, she nodded again and spoke again this time to her omni-tool.

A moment later the drone's green eye turned blue and her voice spoke in English with a slight accent. "Do you understand what I'm saying now?" Shepard nodded slowly. "Okay good, this will have to do until I get you a proper translator.", she started, "You were in a bad condition when I found you, do you remember what happened?"

"I umm, I was being chased and then I tripped and then I'm not sure anymore." He averted his eyes to the ceiling. "I fell down some junk and a piece of metal stabbed me. I think I was dying." He closed his eyes to will the memory away and he felt a three fingered hand gently squeezing his shoulder, surprisingly he eyed it and followed it to its owner looking down at him. "Thank you for saving me." he said sincere, she nodded and pulled her arm back.

"Right" ,she spoke again after a moment, "You've been unconscious since I dragged you to my home." She paused to figure out a way to best tell him but decided to be blunt. "That was almost two days ago."

"Wh-what", he started, "Two days, are you serious?" she nodded and he closed his eyes.

After a moment of silence she continued. "Right now you're unable to walk home as you probably found out by yourself, "Shepard could swear there was a hint of amusement at his tone, _Is she enjoying this?,_ he thought. "You should stay in bed for another day or more and then take it easy for a few more days and you'll be fine, I think.."

"You think?" he asked disbelieving.

"I don't know", she averted her eyes, "I'm just umm improvising, I'm not a doctor." Shepard eyed her dumbfounded and she started fidgeting with her hands under his intense gaze.

"Could've fooled me." He muttered

"So…" she cleared her throat. "How are you feeling? Do you need anything."

"Why are you helping me?" he asked a little harsher then intended.

"What do you mean?" she asked confused.

"Why did you safe me? Why did you carry me? Why are you treating me? Why are you being nice?"

She turned her head back in his direction and blinked surprised at his outburst. "Because you needed help and I couldn't let you die." She answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Would you rather I left you there?"

"At least I'd understand that." he muttered. After another moment of silence he exhaled, "I'm sorry" he said tiredly, "It's just.. I'm not used to people being nice."

"Why not?" she asked her voice laced with a mix of concern and confusion.

"It's because I'm a…" he stopped mid-sentence as her omni-tool lit up with an incoming message.

"Sorry I'll be right back." She hurriedly stepped out the door leaving the activated drone behind. After the door closed Shepard was left with his own confused thoughts.

A moment later her voice echoed through the room and Shepard realized that she forgot to turn off her drone which was still translating for him. He tried to block out the conversation until a sentence caught his attention. "Yeah he just woke me up ten minutes ago." She started and his interest was piqued. "He was lying on the ground probably trying to sit up and fell or something I don't know why exactly I didn't ask him, but his wound reopened so I had to reapply some medi-gel and new bandages to his wound." She sighed, "Yes mom, I checked him for other injuries too. He's fine just a bit confused at waking up here." _That's an understatement_, he mused. "No he didn't tell me his name yet, I was just about to ask him when you called. I'll see you tonight mom, I can handle this don't worry, _keelah se'lai_." He could hear an audible frustrated sigh as she entered the room again. "Right where were we."

Shepard watched her less guarded this time and felt oddly comfortable with her presence so he decided to at least cooperate with her, she did after all safe him. "It's Jonathan Shepard", he started and explained further as she tilted her head, "Your drone was still translating"

Her eyes widened and quickly looked at said drone which eye was indeed still blue to her embarrassment. "_Bosh'tet_" she muttered inaudible under her breath. "Well this is embarrassing"

"What's your name?"

"Oh", she exclaimed and inclined her head slightly, "Where are my manners, Lana'Maru nar Mindoir at your service, I'll be taking care of you until you'll be able to take care of yourself again."

"Well.." Shepard started uncertain, "You don't have to do that, I'm sure you have more important things to do"

"Nonsense," Lana countered, "I've got nothing better to do anyway and we wouldn't want you to die of boredom do we."

"I guess not" he said until something struck him as odd, "Wait your name is Mindoir?"

"hm, oh no, my name is Lana'Maru. But call me Lana"

"Then why did you say Mindoir?"

"Oh you mean nar Mindoir," Lana nodded as she understood what he meant."Nar Mindoir means that I was born on Mindoir, literally it means child of Mindoir for my people. It's a common mistake by other species."

"I see" he replied as he absorbed the information."I'm sorry if I offend," he started cautious, "but what race are you? I can't exactly see it with that helmet of yours."

Lana giggled and Shepard decided he liked to hear her laugh. "You're not very familiar with other species are you?"

"Well", Shepard started, "no not really. Most colonists are trying to escape from the other species."

"So that's what you were doing on the ground." She exclaimed

Shepard felt his cheeks heat and looked embarrassed at the ceiling. "I err, no I was trying to, you know, walk..." he finished lamely.

"Mmhm" She hummed amused, "Of course you were."

Shepard slowly looked back at her and he could see a faint grin through the helmet. "So… you never said what race you were."

"That's right." She flatly replied.

He stared at her for a moment until he was sure she wasn't going to tell him. "Are you going to tell me?" he asked.

"Depends" she leaned over him and stared at him with those two illuminated eyes inches away from his, "Are you going to be a good patient. I can't have you trying to escape all the time."

"Okay" he answered softly.

She straightened herself, turned and walked to her drone. "I am a descendant of one of the mighty quarian people." She announced proudly as she stood next to the drone and faced Shepard again.

"A quarian?" he asked confused, "I've never heard of them before."

Lana's eyes narrowed slightly and Shepard couldn't suppress the slight shiver running through his spine. A moment later she approached him again and sat down next to him. "Then I have a lot to tell you." She said enthusiastic. "Now let's begin with our history… "

-GU-GU-GU-

**Keelah se'lai: **_ '_By the homeworld I hope to see one day'

**Bosh'tet:** Animal, native to Rannoch. With no insect life, other species of life had to fill the niches that on earth fell to the insects. One such niche was the dung beetle. A bosh'tet falls into the category of roller on earth as it moves the dung found to a central location. Though differing in colors, from the green/yellow of the cooler climates to the blue/white in the more tropical areas, they are the same species. Known for their apparent inability to distinguish between dung and small rocks, it is considered extremely stupid. Many have been found dead, surrounded by small rocks, as it tried to feed on them.


	4. Confession

_Mindoir, 12 years and 100 days ago (January 31)_

It was around five o'clock in the morning as Shepard lay in his bed contemplating the previous day. _Four hours, _he thought, _four long, fast speaking, hours of Quarian information._

She talked about so many things that he was still trying to process most of it. _She wasn't kidding when she said she had a lot to tell me, _he mused. She spoke of their pre-galactic history, their changing culture, their religion, their government, their immune systems and suits, the Geth uprising and, mostly her own, technical skills. He was surprised by her vast amount of knowledge but completely shocked by the fact that if her mother didn't tell her dinner was ready, he'd be sure Lana would still be talking to him. He was also pretty sure that he knew more about Quarians than Humans.

Not that Shepard minded it that much thought, maybe the vast quantity of the information, but not the company. She managed to tell it in such a way that managed to keep his mind from drifting away, unlike what usually happens during classes, with that softly accented voice of hers that made him want to hear whatever she had to say.

The simple fact that she was the first to have a normal, if a little one sided, conversation with him motivated him beyond anything else to just let her do all the talking in case he somehow managed to screw it up and offend her. So he listened and let her do all the talking.

The soft whirring of her drone, temporary translator and nurse, interrupted his thoughts as it floated quietly towards him and he remembered their parting conversation as he closed his eyes.

"_Right well I have to go now." Lana started "You need to rest anyway, I'll try to find a better solution for the whole you-not-having-a-translator situation. Until that is fixed I'll let Jemo'Eder stay with you."_

"_Jemo'Eder?" Shepard asked confused "Who is that, another Quarian?"_

_She sighed "Where are my manners, I can't believe I haven't introduced you yet." She motioned to her drone. "Jonathan'Shepard meet Jemo'Eder, my personal assistant," The drone tilted forward in what seemed like a bow to him. "Jemo will be your active nurse for the night and continue her translating duties. Whenever you need something just click this button," she pulled something out of one of her many pockets and handed it to him. It was a cube, about the size of his palm, with a small green button on it. "and Jemo will set an immediate link to my omni-tool so you can ask me yourself." He placed the cube next to him, a moment of silence later she spoke again. "Oh, I'll dim Jemo's light a little before I leave." She tapped a few buttons on her omni-tool and the drone's light lost half its intensity. "Is this good?" She asked._

"_Yeah no problem" he answered._

"_That's convenient because this is as good as it's going to get." She replied and lowered her omni-tool. "Right you need to rest now and I'll see you tomorrow. Until tomorrow John."_

"_John?" he asked with a raised eyebrow._

"_Yes your name is too long," She answered with a dismissive wave of her hand, "as my patient your name will be John"_

"_I, um, that's okay I guess." He said silently._

"_Of course it is" she replied her voice tinted with amusement. "Don't tell me nobody called you John before."_

_Shepard gulped and squashed the urge to tell her that nobody called him John, or his name for that matter, ever since everybody found out he was a biotic. "N-no, not for a long time no." he answered._

"_Well that's going to change" she said with finality. "I'll be back tomorrow John, be nice to Jemo he means well." and with that she left._

He shook his head to clear the memory and opened his eyes. He screamed and his muscles tensed when he stared at the drone two inches removed from his face as it stared with its, now red, eye at him. _Is it going to attack? _He thought.

The deep warbled voice from the scrap-yard erupted from the drone as it hovered above him. "Do you require assistance John'Shepard?" Shepard stared with muted shock as the drone patiently awaited his answer. A minute later Shepard gathered enough courage to shake his head no. "Are you certain John'Shepard?" it asked. "Your pupils are dilated and your heart-rate is 13,71% faster than usual indicating that you are in a stressful environment. Please inform me what stresses you so I can act accordingly John'Shepard."

"Well um Jemo," He started his voice slightly trembling Shepard mustered his courage again and steeled his voice, "You're a little too close for comfort."

"Acknowledged, I will continue monitoring from a distance." it replied and floated up 5 feet to the ceiling. Once there its eye focused on him again and it made its soft whirring noise again, Shepard breathe a sigh of relief and his muscles relaxed. A second later it stopped and the drone spoke again. "Heart-rate decreasing pupils resumed normal diameter."

Shepard looked at the drone floating, still with its red eye, at the ceiling as it watched him attentively. After a few minutes of silence the drone slowly floated next to him. "I have a query John'Shepard." It said softer this time.

"Okay" Shepard said as he cautiously sat up.

"Why did you not defend yourself?" It asked and its eyes focused on him.

"What are you talking about?" he asked warily when the drone's simple question caught him off-guard.

"I am referring to your hostile encounter with the other humans"

"W-what about it?"

"Medical scans indicate that you have an active L2-biotic implant powerful enough to apply a mass effect field that is capable of producing a force of approximately 700 Newton, yet you did not use it to protect yourself from harm and instead was injured by other individuals with inferior strength. I wish to understand why you chose to do so."

Shepard stared for a second at the drone as his surprised mind processed the fact that the drone was aware of his abilities and where it was going with its questions. "I can't just kill them" he said after a long moment of silence.

"Why not?" it asked and slightly tilted to the left with a surprisingly human gesture. "They tried to kill you, self-defense is logical."

"I.. no, not for me." He whispered softly.

"Why not?" it repeated.

"I, well, because I'm a biotic." He couldn't believe he was doing this, he never talked about this to anybody before but for some reason he felt the need to explain it to at least someone, even if it was just a robot, so he continued. "What do you know about humanities interspecies relations?"

"This is the first data exchange I have with a human" it said and whirred, "My database are insufficient regarding human contact with other species."

"Humans are pretty new to the galactic community," he softly started, "We only discovered the mass relay network around 20 years ago." He sighed and continued with a steeled voice, "For humanity 30 years ago we were all alone in the universe, for decades we searched the stars with telescopes, spaceships and transmitted messages without success. So humanity started to feel alone The only sign of other life we found was an abandoned protean ruin on Mars. With the discovery human technology sky-rocketed and a year later we found the Charon relay encased in ice orbiting Pluto. Soon after the discovery humanity started using the relay rapidly exploring and colonizing uninhabited planets, activating other relays along the way." Another sigh, "Until the Turians found out that we were activating inactive relays." Shepard scoffed, "The first intelligent life we find in the galaxy tries to kill us because of a rule we were unaware of." He shook his head and looked the drone in the eye. "I'm sure you understand why humans started hating other species."

"Affirmative" it said and it seemed to nod its head. "A bad impression was made."

"Right" Shepard returned the nod, admiring the drone's slight human gestures , and continues. "After the First Contact War, or the Relay 314 Incident if you ask the council, was over humanity quickly became part of the galactic community. However most humans wanted nothing to do with other species and isolated themselves on colonies such as Mindoir." He sighed deeply and his shoulders slumped. "Now imagine a human that uses biotic abilities only associated with other species until a few years ago."

"They fear you," it deadpanned

"Yes," Shepard replied, "so if I start using my biotics on people, self-defense or not, they will eventually consider me a danger to everybody and.. remove me…" He sighed and straightened his back. "So that's why I didn't use my biotics to defend myself. Everybody thinks my biotics are a disaster waiting to happen but I'm going to prove everybody that I can control it, whether they like it or not."

"Well that's pretty admirable I suppose." Lana's voice suddenly came from the drone, whose eye was now blue. Shepard jerked back in surprise and would've fallen off the bed if it wasn't for a three fingered hand keeping him steady from behind. "No don't fall off the bed again," She chastised, "You're supposed to be healing here not throwing yourself on the floor."

"How long have you been here?" Shepard asked as he managed to steady his breath and lower his heart-rate.

"Oh I think around 6 minutes ago," She said and removed her hands, "But Jemo contacted me when he scared you and I've been listening to you since then."

"So you heard everything." He stated more to himself than her.

"I have," Lana said as she sat down on his right next to him while he followed her movements with his eyes. A moment of awkward silence hung between them until she broke it. "I hope you succeed." She quietly started, "It would be nice to see some wrong prejudices broken for a change." Lana turned her head to the left and looked at him with a glint in her eyes that intrigued him, their eyes were locked for a minute until she averted her eyes to the ground. "Looks like we have more in common than you know." She softly said.

Shepard let his eyes linger on her for a while before he turned his gaze to the drone still floating in its spot. "So what is the drone exactly?" he wondered aloud.

Lana looked up at the drone as its eye turned red and focused on her. The two started speaking in the language she spoke before, Khelish he realized, and the only thing he was able to recognize was his own name being spoken once or twice. After a minute or so the drone's eye turned blue again and she turned her head to him. "I'll explain exactly what Jemo is when I think you're ready for it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked slightly offended.

"That I need to know you better before I can trust you." She answered and slightly tilted her head after a moment, "You're doing fine so far." Lana stood up and walked toward the door. "Now tell me," She said and looked over her shoulder, "How good are you with tech John?"

"I'm decent I guess," He answered as he carefully lay back down on the bed.

"Splendid," she replied enthusiastic, "Then I'll look for the equipment needed for your own translator and you'll get to help me build it." With that she exited the room and closed the door behind her.

"Interesting" The drone said, eye red again, slightly tilted again. "Usually she prefers to work alone."

"Interesting" he repeated to himself as he thought back on that look in her eyes earlier. _Oh yes, she's going to be interesting alright. _He mused to himself as he closed his eyes and waited for her return.

-GU-GU-GU-

**Author's note: **The drone, Jemo'Eder, has three main functions: Red eye, Jemo is in direct control with the drone. Blue eye, Lana is using the drones programs and controlling its behavior (like a normal drone). Green eye, the drone is in stand-by mode when its powering up or neither Jemo or Lana is using it.

You can probably guess what Jemo'Eder is but I figured that's not something you'd tell strangers you found bleeding out so it will remain a mystery for Shepard until further notice. I think I'll reveal it at the same time of the reason why Lana lives on Mindoir maybe next chapter.


End file.
